You have a product or service and you’d like to market that product or service via mobile marketing. It’s easy to see why. Mobile device use is becoming popular with pretty much all age groups. Eleven year olds have mobile devices and so do eighty year old great-grandmas. With the ability to reach your audience anywhere and everywhere they go, mobile advertising and marketing is a natural progression for the ambitious marketer. Be forewarned, however, that mobile marketing is not as easy as it seems. You must tread carefully and you should follow the tips and tricks of those who came before you if you hope to effectively run a successful mobile marketing campaign.
Getting The Digits
For mobile marketing to be effective, you have to get your subscribers’ mobile phone numbers. This is the most difficult part. People are already wary of giving out their email addresses because email spam is so rampant. The last thing people want to do is receive spam on their phones. There is nothing worse than watching a movie in a quiet movie theater only to have your phone start blowing up with texts regarding the latest Wal-Mart gift card giveaway.
In order to be successful at mobile marketing, you must know your audience extremely well and you must divulge what you are going to give them and when you are going to give it. This complete transparency will help your audience develop a sense of trust that will go a long way towards getting them to give up those ten little numbers.
To accomplish this, and just like every other form of online marketing, you must conduct plenty of online research.
What Does Your Audience Want?
In order to find out what your audience wants so that you can profit with a mobile marketing campaign, you must find:
- The Hottest Keywords: These are the keywords your audience is entering into Google and the other search engines to help solve some pressing problem.
- A Common Problem: What issue is your audience facing that your product or service will help with?
- The Benefits of Your Product or Service: Why would your audience sign up with your mobile marketing campaign? What’s in it for them?
- Unique Selling Proposition: What sets your campaign apart from your competitors’ campaigns? Can your audience get the same product or service elsewhere? If so, what sets yours apart?
The above can only be found through extensive research, including keyword research, the monitoring of social networks, the perusing of popular forums in your niche and even audience surveys. This isn’t something you want to just guess at or ‘wing’. For mobile marketing to be effective, you must identify your audience’s problems and then you must target in on that problem and offer solutions in a timely manner. Do that and your audience will gladly give you anything you ask for.
An Example Of A Mobile Marketing Opt-In
Let’s pretend you have a service that teaches Brazilian Jujitsu online through online videos and Skype sessions. Your audience is comprised of mixed martial arts (MMA) and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fans. Every time a UFC fight comes on, you hand out business cards at your local sports bar telling MMA fans that they can get fight scores, the winners of each bout and more hard-hitting news and updates sent right to their phones through SMS text messages. They can either go to the website listed on the card or they can scan the QR code. Both will take them to a mobile landing page where they can opt-in with their phone number.
The above example is only one way to get mobile phone numbers, but you can see how it might be effective. Once the phone numbers come in, the service must then deliver those scores and info and then at the end you can make your pitch about online BJJ lessons. Make sure you don’t spam your user’s phones and they’ll remain subscribed as long as you keep offering the service.
Tips For Effective Mobile Marketing Campaigns
The key to mobile marketing is to use your imagination. Try to do what nobody else is doing and you will go far. You can also:
- Make Your Landing Page Simple: Don’t fill your screen with too much gobbledygook. These are mobile screens we’re talking about so keep it simple.
- Accommodate Big Fingered Folk: Your landing pages should have large buttons for those with big fingers and touch screens.
- Keep Text To A Minimum: Don’t make your audience read too much. Just give them what they want and entice the opt-in. Get the digits quickly.
- Use Innovation: Using QR codes on business cards is just one good idea where innovation can help you get more mobile numbers. SMS messaging works well to send instant text messages to your audience, but then there are mobile apps and elements that haven’t even been invented yet. Think outside the box and always use the latest technology to help you reach your audience faster and with more efficiency.
- Always Keep An Eye On The Competition: If you always know where your competitors are, you can always remain one step ahead.
- Treat Your Audience With Respect: It cannot be reiterated enough. Never spam your audience, don’t send them offers to things that aren’t relevant to their interests and never trade or sell their contact information. Mobile marketing can only work when there is a trust factor involved.
Keep these tips in mind the next time you implement a mobile marketing campaign and you’ll be that much closer to success.
